Chiefs Advance in CPL Playoffs With 6-1 Win Over Clarence

HYDE — Thomas Summers pitched a complete game and the Clearfield American Legion baseball team took advantage of free passes and Clarence misplays to oust the Mounties from the Central Penn League Playoffs with a 6-1 win at the Bison Sports Complex Saturday.

The Chiefs will strive to take one more step through the elimination bracket Sunday with a trip to Bellefonte for a 5:30 p.m. start at Governors Park. The Bandits lost to No. 1 seed Mifflin County Saturday after upending No. 4 seed State College Friday.

“I though Summers pitched an outstanding game,” manager Sid Lansberry said after the Chief left-hander closed out innings with runners in scoring position five times.

“He mixed his pitches well. He didn’t have a lot of strikeouts, but he kept control of the game pretty much.”

Summers fanned three Mounties, all in the fourth frame, while walking four and hitting one en route to his third win in six decisions.

“We played some good defense behind him, and Josh (Sorbera) called a good game,” Lansberry added. “They were not able to hit a lot of balls hard.”

Summers also helped himself by picking off two runners, the first one probably saving a run in the first inning.

Jeff Bennett led off with a single to center but was caught straying too far off first base, so Ryan Dyke’s double did no damage.

Any thoughts Clarence coaches contemplated about running ended right there for the Mounties.

“That works wonders when you pick a kid off or throw the first kid out at second,” Lansberry said.

No. 6 seed Clearfield (10-12) turned three of Jon Romine’s five walks into runs, while one Chief who was hit by a pitch and another who reached base on an error also scored.

Romine, a 6-7 right-hander who was 1-1 for Allegany College of Maryland in the spring, got himself in a jam in the bottom of the first inning when he walked Spencer Herrington, plunked Cole Kephart one out later and, after Curt Collins chopped a ball high off the plate for a hit, walked Logan Puit to force in a run. Then, Jon Janocko bounced into a force-out for an RBI and Josh Kennedy rammed a single through the right side to make it 3-0.

Kennedy earned another RBI in the third frame with a groundout that scored Collins, who singled on a high fly that fell in no man’s land down the right field line and then advanced to third on a groundout and a wild pitch.

A walk and three Clarence errors gave the Chiefs their final two runs in the fourth inning.

Summers and Clearfield’s inner defense took care of the Mounties over the final three innings.

On the lone ball hit out of the infield, Rowles raced in from center to make a dandy, sliding catch that deprived Otis Stathan of a single with two Mounties aboard via free passes from Summers.

“We made all the basic plays,” Lansberry said. “We’ve been playing that way.”